The #MeToo movement had already named and shamed Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, comedian Louis C.K., U.S. senator Al Franken and celebrity chef Mario Batali when Elizabeth Dunn decided she had something to say about her classmates at Middlebury College.
On December 12, the senior went on Facebook to post a short list of “men to avoid” at Vermont’s most prestigious college and solicited input from others. She added the crowdsourced names to her list until she had called out 36 male students and recent graduates for sexual misbehavior, ranging from serial rape to harassment.
Not all of the accusers were female. A few cases involved males or nonbinary students identifying men responsible for sexual misdeeds, according to Dunn.
Facebook removed the post within 48 hours, but screenshots of the list continue to circulate on campus. The incident gained national traction after it was covered on Babe.net, the same online outlet that published the much-debated anonymous account of a woman’s “worst night of my life” date with comedian Aziz Ansari. In its Middlebury story, the website that proudly claims to be “for girls who don’t give a fuck” blacked out the names on Dunn’s list.
Like Ansari’s defenders, some say Dunn, 21, went too far: What began as overdue acknowledgment of a vast sexual harassment problem has devolved into unfair and unsupported charges against men. Middlebury may expel Dunn, and she is worried that sanctions by the college could derail her plans to graduate in May and attend law school in the fall.
But other observers see Dunn’s list as an act of bravery and, perhaps, desperation.
“There is an epidemic of sexual assault and everything else you can think of — violence, belittlement, discrimination, stalking, coercion — which happens on college and university campuses every day,” said Felicia Kornbluh, a feminist and associate professor of history at the University of Vermont.
Women have issued warnings about men for a long time, and Dunn’s list is a modern way to frame the message, Kornbluh said. It’s “like what we used to do with writing names on the bathroom wall,” she said. “It’s sort of the weapon of the weak.”
The list is a reminder that many victims don’t feel they can trust in police or campus judicial systems to seek redress, Kornbluh said: “It’s a sign of our utter failure institutionally.”
Numerous students have shared stories with her of being victimized, she added. “It’s pretty ubiquitous, and I hear no stories in which people used the university or other judicial procedures and got relief. That basically never happens,” Kornbluh said. “So here we are. If I was an undergraduate, I might be writing on Facebook, too.”
Culture Shock
Dunn said yes to Middlebury four years ago without ever having seen the place. The Atlanta, Ga., resident picked the college in part because it is known for its foreign languages and offered Arabic, which she’d studied in the rigorous International Baccalaureate program at her public high school.
Middlebury also offered financial aid to cover most of the cost of her four-year education. The teen was too busy with exams at the time to take advantage of an invitation to fly up and visit. Dunn, whom her friends call Liz, turned down similar offers from Brandeis University, American University, and the College of William and Mary to come to Vermont.
Dunn was eager to get out of the South and experience a new culture, a new place. But the transition for the African American daughter of a single hotel housekeeper mom was “jarring,” as Dunn described it on a couch inside Middlebury’s on-campus radio station, WRMC 91.1 FM, on the second floor of Proctor Hall. (She hosts a weekly program, “Cannabis Feminist,” that explores “the intersections of marijuana, feminism, race, class and the prison industrial complex.”) The mostly white, mostly wealthy and very sports-oriented school culture at Middlebury was indeed unfamiliar.
And, like many new college students, Dunn found herself navigating social situations for which she was unprepared. One night during her first year, she attended a party, met a guy and went to his room. According to Dunn, the student, a senior, plied her with alcohol to the point where she was “very drunk.” They had a sexual encounter even though Dunn now says she “didn’t really know what was happening” and “didn’t really consent to a lot of what was happening.”
Dunn tearfully explained that, the next day, she knew something terrible had occurred but didn’t want to fully admit it to herself. She never reported the incident to police or campus judicial officers because she did not want to face humiliating questions that “chip away at you” and blame the victim, she said.
But she came to view the encounter as a sexual assault. And late last year, inspired by the #MeToo movement — and the “Shitty Media Men” list circulating online with claims about professionals in that industry — Dunn accused the student in her December 12 Facebook post that quickly grew into a list of 36 men. She revealed only his first name and encouraged other students to direct message, aka “DM,” her on Facebook with the names of their abusers. She promised to add them to her list.
“The messages just started pouring in,” Dunn recalled, adding that she was surprised by how many students wanted to share their experiences of being victimized by harassment and sexual assault. “There’s just a lot of collective pain and trauma that people have experienced here,” Dunn said of Middlebury College.
Before Facebook took it down due to complaints, the post listed the offenders — almost all by both first and last names — along with various accusations after each one, from “serial rapist” to “emotionally abusive” to “treats women, especially black women, like shit.”
Dunn’s post ended with these words: “here’s to not being complicit in 2018 and feel free to dm me more names to add to this status because I could really give a fuck about protecting the privacy of abusers.”
All of this happened as students were preparing to leave campus for the holiday break. Before she headed home to Atlanta, Dunn got a call from a campus judicial officer asking to meet. Initially, the purpose seemed to be to offer her comfort and support as a victim of sexual assault, Dunn said. But then the officer, whom she won’t name, asked her to identify and provide contact information for those students who gave her the names of the men on the list.
Dunn said she refused to cooperate because she had promised to protect the privacy of the victims; she has since deleted all of their messages. Then, last week, Dunn said she was summoned again to meet with Middlebury judicial officers. On January 17, they told her she was officially facing college discipline for violating the privacy of other students — that is, those individuals she outed on the list.
“I could be facing suspension or expulsion. Middlebury judicial affairs has refused to take anything off the table right now,” said Dunn, who is majoring in gender, sexuality and feminism studies. The possibility that she might not be able to finish at Middlebury is sobering, she said, but she still feels she did the right thing.
“This harm is being done by, like, specific people and by specific individuals, and if we want to move toward a conversation about, like, healing and accountability and growth, there needs to be some acknowledgment that harm was done,” Dunn said. “So I think that the list was collectively generated not only by me, but by a pretty large group of survivors. It was like taking a moment to say, ‘This is our experience. This is what happened to us.'”
Men About Campus
Students weren’t eager to speak to this reporter about Dunn or her list on a snowy afternoon last Thursday. More than half a dozen males declined to comment on the record about the controversy, but each was aware of it. The roster continues to circulate, they said, because so many people took screenshots of the post before Facebook pulled it down.
“For someone to just post a name, post an allegation and not have anything to back it up, it’s hard to respect that,” said a male first-year student on campus who did not want his name used. Others said the post “freaked” students out but triggered necessary conversations.
Samantha Valone, a Middlebury sophomore from the Boston area, said it was a good thing to call attention to sexual violence. But, she added, “I just kind of feel bad for some of the people who were maybe accused and are innocent, because their lives are pretty rough right now.”
The range of misdeeds, alleged or real, also varied widely, she noted, from emotional abuse to the much more serious “serial rape,” and “they maybe shouldn’t have been put on the same list,” Valone said.
After Facebook took down the list, some students decried the decision online and even accused the social media giant of being complicit in sexual assault, observed Nathaniel Wiener, a Middlebury College senior and a reporter for the student newspaper, the Middlebury Campus, which published a December 23 story on Dunn.
But other students immediately felt the list was unfair and still do, Wiener said last week. The controversy comes on the heels of another Middlebury mess that went national last March, when student protesters shut down a talk by The Bell Curve coauthor Charles Murray and injured a professor in the process.
Dunn helped organize that public demonstration, too, calling Murray’s race-based theories about intelligence deeply offensive. On November 13, she took part in a “performance activism” piece in front of Proctor called “Laurie’s Big Apology.” Students in cheerleading getups waved metallic pom-poms as they lampooned Middlebury president Laurie Patton’s effort to respond to continuing protests around the Murray event during a town-hall-style meeting she had convened a few days earlier.
To see the college headed back into the headlines over a new scandal upset a number of alumni, according to Wiener. Some reached out to him to ask about Dunn’s motivations with the list. “My answer was, ‘I don’t know,'” said Wiener.
It didn’t help that immediately after the social media blast, the college issued emails to the student body that appeared to take one side, and then the other. The first urged victims to report harassment or assault to the college judicial office. The second urged people falsely accused to report that, too, to the same office. The messages just added to the confusion around the list, Wiener said.
“It was like you get into a fight in the schoolyard, and your parents say, ‘Well, I don’t really know what happened, but make sure you don’t do it again,'” Wiener said.
The federal law known as Title IX prohibits Middlebury and other educational institutions from discriminating on the basis of gender. Although it is well known for improving women’s access and participation in athletics, the statute also provides guidance on campus judicial reviews of sexual assaults.
College officials would not confirm that Dunn is facing possible sanctions, nor would they say if any of the individuals on the list might be. A request to interview Patton was denied. But college spokeswoman Sarah Ray offered this statement on her behalf: “Middlebury takes all allegations regarding sexual assault and discrimination extremely seriously. Our policies encourage reporting of assaults and ensure that allegations are investigated thoroughly, fairly and confidentially. The public posting of allegations raises many issues for our community and has no role in a fair and balanced process.
“An investigation into all aspects of this incident is under way,” the statement continued, “and we will work to ensure that Middlebury carefully follows its policies regarding sexual assault, harassment and other Title IX allegations, as well as its policies regarding respect for persons.”
Justice or Witch Hunt?
This is not the first time social media has been used in a campus sexual assault allegation. Alec Rose is a Santa Monica, Calif., attorney with a national practice that specializes in college assault cases. He’s not representing anyone in connection with the Middlebury incident.
One of his clients was recently cleared in a campus judicial review process, and the alleged victim chose not to appeal but later tweeted the young man’s name with the accusation that he was a “rapist loose on campus” and that the college was whitewashing that fact, Rose said. “It was very devastating for the young man,” and he withdrew from the school, according to Rose, who declined to release more specific details.
Meanwhile, the accuser could have channeled her anger into an appeal, he added. Using social media as it was in that case, and in others, can be deeply unfair, Rose said: “I think it’s a dangerous way for somebody to seek redress, both to them and the people they are accusing.”
He had a similar reaction after reading the story about Dunn’s list on Babe.
“Without knowing that she had substance to back up her accusations against these 30 young men, I don’t know how this could be deemed responsible,” Rose said, adding: “It’s certainly very humiliating to the people she reported on … It may be a situation where some of them may not be able to recover their reputation.”
Dunn said she considered the risk that someone would sue her for defamation of character when she posted the list, but she doesn’t believe it will happen — in part because legal action would generate unwanted publicity. She hasn’t heard from lawyers for any of the accused young men.
Another factor is the veracity of the claim. “In a campus situation, or in any situation where someone has alleged defamation by [an allegation of] sexual assault, one defense to that would be truth, that it actually happened,” said Burlington attorney Ben Luna, who has no direct connection to the Middlebury situation but has represented students facing various charges and tried many sexual assault cases in his former career as a prosecutor.
“There’s a whole host of issues at play here, legal and otherwise,” Luna said.
Meanwhile, some female public figures, including French actress Catherine Deneuve, are warning that the #MeToo movement is turning into a witch hunt.
Is Middlebury an example of overreach on campuses?
“My immediate reaction to that is no,” Luna said. Historically speaking, sexual assault has “been a grossly underreported crime,” and victims have not felt able to go to the courts for many reasons, Luna said.
“There’s a whole laundry list of reasons why an individual will not report, will not disclose,” Luna said. “Some of those examples are the fear that no one will believe them, embarrassment. A lot of sex assault victims blame themselves.” Luna said one teenage victim he worked with wasn’t fully aware she had been violated. “She didn’t really know what rape was,” he said.
Back at Middlebury, Dunn is waiting to see how the college disciplinary process treats her. Her friends are petitioning against punitive action, and Dunn is applying to law schools.
She said she isn’t concerned that her activism could adversely affect her chances of getting in. Her plan B: landing a job in the Bronx public defender’s office.
Dunn has heard nothing from the man she personally accused and has never directly told him how she felt about the evening. Does she think he would view the incident as sexual assault? “Probably not,” she said. “And that’s another thing that is really typical here.”
Men are sometimes raised to ignore social cues and feel a sense of entitlement, while women may be socialized not to say no or to accept things so men feel more comfortable, suggested Dunn.
Reactions from men on the list haven’t all been negative. Some of the accused have “glared” at Dunn in the dining hall or said “not very nice” things, she allowed. But others have approached her to discuss the allegations and even said they wanted to create a forum for broader conversation.
Tyler McDowell, a junior from Pennsylvania, was accused on the list of making “fetishistic, racist, sexual comments about black women.” He doesn’t remember making such comments and does not know who claims he made them, McDowell told Seven Days.
Still, he doesn’t feel he was treated unfairly. “I do not feel wronged by this. I also would stipulate that other men probably shouldn’t, either,” said McDowell.
The list was a “wake-up call” that should trigger discussion about the need for an end to the behaviors that were described on the list, he added. It’s “one way of broadcasting kind of a general call for culture change.”
Correction, January 25, 2018: Felicia Kornbluh called posting names a “weapon of the weak.” And earlier version of this story contained an error.
This article appears in Jan 24-30, 2018.
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Shame on Middlebury College for it’s poor response. the #metoo campaign doesn’t just protect celebrities from sexual harassment. Young girls on college campuses have long had nowhere to turn. That someone would turn to publishing their abusers online is no surprise. If you want them not to, step up and provide an alternative solution.
Elizabeth Dunn, stay strong. It’s hard to speak truth to power.
Tyler McDowell, to takes a lot of courage to be publicly called out and to use it as a moment for growth. I hope more follow your example.
Sexual assualt is obviously NOT okay, but it is also not taking place in “epidemic” proportions, as claims Professor Felicia Kornbluh, who is supposedly a historian. As horrific as it is, it is neither rampant nor ubiquitous. Thankfully, it is the exception rather than the rule, and Ms. Kornbluh’s histrionic, overwrought comment isn’t helpful. Historians should at least try for a dispassionate, unexcitable response to events. And yes, Ms. Dunn should face sanctions at Middlebury and serious legal action from anyone on her list, unless they have been convicted on evidence in a court of law. It looks like that young woman has caused a great deal of trouble for herself. You don’t accuse people of crimes without cause or evidence. I wonder if she has either of those things and also if she has the stomach or the money for the inevitable legal trouble that is about to come her way.
the monster the left has created is consuming itself
“It’s pretty ubiquitous, and I hear no stories in which people used the university or other judicial procedures and got relief. That basically never happens.”
Is Prof Kornbluh saying that UVM doesn’t do anything for students who get harassed and assaulted?
Ms. Dunn wants to attend law school but seems to have little respect or understanding of how the system works. Im in no way defending the men she has outed but in America we have a system in which victims report crimes to officials and bring charges against the perpetrators of crimes. We do not just plaster accusations up online and expect the general public to judge the perpetrators with no evidence. As the parent of a young daughter I have no use for men that dont respect women but I will also teach my daughter that if she is ever violated by anyone man or woman the path to follow is go to the authorities and file charges. Justice will never be served by just posting names on a Facebook page. Ms. Dunn may want to ask Middlebury for some of her money back because the education she has paid for does not seem to be good enough to get her into law school if she does not understand how the law works by now. And without evidence she might be liabil of slander if any of the men decided to challenge her statements.
I think this should be a wake up call to Middlebury College that it’s students do not understand consent. It’s time to go beyond teaching students how to avoid being raped. It’s time to go beyond teaching students how not to rape (though that would be a nice start). It’s time for Middlebury College to set a standard of enthusiastic consent for both parties, and teach their students how to recognize enthusiastic consent. Why set such a high standard for consent? That’s easy – sex should be enjoyed and wanted by both parties. Are you not sure if your partner wants to have sex with you? Are you getting mixed signals? You do not have enthusiastic consent. Do not pass Go. Do not have sex with your partner.
Who Elected You the place women that have experienced sexual assault can turn is the police or an emergency room, both places are capable of preforming a rape kit that will provide the evidence needed to file charges against the person responsible for violating them. Thats how you get justice not posting names with no evidence. Just ask the scumbag Harvey Weinstein he assaulted many women but because none appear to have followed the proper legal paths he will never spend a day in jail and will return to his posh life in no time. Who knows in a few years the libs in Hollywood will forget it ever happened and award him a lifetime achievement award.
While no one should condone sexual assault or protect those who perpetrate it, is it not possible that the male who assaulted Ms Dunn was every bit as drunk as she? In which case would she not be equally as liable?
Also I suspect that her list could and most likely does include some wrongfully.
I had a nasty breakup during my college years and could envision landing on a similar ‘list’ as a means of revenge by the person with whom I broke up.
Some of those listed may now be wondering where they go to get their reputations back.
This is a side note, but I think the phrase Prof. Kornbluh used was “weapon of the weak,” not “weapon of the week.” Weapons of the Weak is the title of a deeply insightful academic book. It shows how people with little power resort to informal, sometimes oblique tactics to resist abuse.
Wow. I am stunned. What has political correctness on campus come to? First its ok to use violence to deny a controversial Ph.D the right to speak to students who want to hear. Then its ok to try to criminally prosecute a student for what he supposedly said in a private telephone conversation with his mother. Now its ok to make unsubstantiated public accusations of rape against specific individuals because all women are victims?
You.
Cannot.
Make.
Public.
Accusations.
Of.
Rape.
Specifically.
Naming.
People.
Unless.
Youre.
Prepared.
To.
File.
Criminal.
Or.
Civil.
Charges.
Against.
Them.
Which.
You.
Cant.
Because.
You.
Have.
No.
Knowledge.
Of.
Whether.
The.
Accusations.
Are.
Even.
True.
IMO what she did is outrageous and unacceptable.
I sympathize that she feels bad about a drunken sexual encounter that happened to her 3 years ago as a college freshman. But was it rape? Why didnt she do anything about it and why isnt she doing anything about it now?
IMO no amount not of feelings of personal victimization justifies accusing specific people you dont even know, of rape.
IMO she should never, ever, ever be employed in the law in any capacity. Ever.
And she faces multiple defamation lawsuits. Because she has no idea whether the people she outed actually did the things she accused them of. She doesnt know the accuseds and she doesnt even know the accusers!
She has just seriously damaged, possibly destroyed, the lives of people who may be completely innocent.
Suppose one of the 36 males she outed with no evidence is denied a job because the employer becomes aware of her accusations on Facebook?
Dear Elizabeth Dunn,
On the the early morning of December 13, 2017, my life changed forever. I became aware of a Facebook status that you had posted earlier that day in which you talked about how you found it disturbing that men who violated boundaries of women at Middlebury remained anonymous. So you made “A List of Men To Avoid”, and put my name on it, with the word rapist next to it. You requested people to private message you names so that you could add more to this list. Photocopies were made and friends of yours handed them out on campus. To put it more frankly, you made a giant blacklist with serious allegations (continued)
Before I even go into what this has done to me, I will first start off with this: your claim about me is 100% wrong. I have done my best to listen to the needs of every single person I have hooked up with and will continue to do so. Rape is a very serious topic and I support hearing the accounts of people who have been assaulted. That being said, what you wrote about me was false, and therefore constitutes as slander and libel (both of which are against the law). It is very possible that a girl could have had some regret after a hookup, been uncomfortable at some point (but did not verbalize that or make that clear in her gestures), or been pissed off for some other reason. That is NOT the same thing as rape. Ever since you posted this list, things have not been the same. I have become very anxious in general and have had dark thoughts circulating in my mind: thoughts about hurting myself so I can escape my miserable state. One day my life was seemingly fine and the next it all changed because of what YOU did. You didnt even make an effort to see if these names that you were being privately messaged were actually guilty and that is truly appalling (continued)
Do you know what its like to wake up sobbing in the middle of the night not realizing what youre crying about? Or what its like to leave your room having people constantly staring at you and questioning if youre a good person or not? Its scary, nerve-wrecking and makes you re-examine every friendship and relationship you have established. And the worst part is there was nothing I could have done to prevent this; I did not do anything wrong yet you decided to publicly list my name as someone who committed an atrocious act even though a) you and I are not friends b) you and I have never spoken to each other and c) you and I know nothing about each other. What you did damaged my life in more ways than you know. Im falling into a deep depression and do not know how to climb out of it. I have considered killing myself and hope to God that I have enough strength to get through the rest of this year. Let me be clear when I say I support #metoo and hope that people who have committed sexual assault will pay for their actions. What you did wasnt #metoo, it was a selfish attempt at garnering some fame and attention for yourself. But guess what? All it has done has damaged the Middlebury community and the lives and reputations of many innocent people. Your actions have shown that you are a narcissist who has no compassion or care for others. (continued)
The worst part is that there are names on that list who have actually brutally raped people, yet they probably wont face any disciplinary action because of the immature, childish and despicable way you went about making this list. You made a recent Facebook post and asked for support from others. Where is my support for being the victim of an attention-seekers sick scheme? I urge you to take responsibility for your disgusting actions.
-Wrongly Accused
P.S. Go take a sex education class. There are legal definitions for rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment.
In response to Leonard Bast: The Department of Justice released a national study in 2016 showing that as many as 1 in 4 college women are sexually assaulted in college. There is also the Washington Post/Kaiser Family Foundation study from 2015 showing that 1 in 5 women are sexually assaulted in college. Thus, Ms. Kornbluh’s comments on the epidemic of sexual assault are not “histrionic” at all– they are factual. This is really happening all the time, despite its unpleasant and unfortunate nature.
In response to the commenter urging victims to go to emergency services: Rape kits can be a helpful tool at times, but to shame women for not attaining a rape kit immediately after being assaulted demonstrates poor understanding of sexual violence and a severe lack of empathy. Sometimes those services are not accessible, sometimes they are not applicable to the situation, and sometimes the sheer trauma and shame of rape can prevent a person from being able to seek help.
Perhaps it’s time to actually listen to women who come forward and are trying to keep themselves and one another safe by sharing their actual lived experiences and using the tools they have to do so. It seems like they might know best.
It would be one thing if Ms. Dunn had only accused her own molester (alleged molester, that is), from a drunken college episode 3 years ago. But that is not what she did. She accused people by name she doesnt know, of being rapists, based on unverified reports from other people she doesnt know. She accused scores of people shes never talked to, never met, and never will meet. She has no knowledge of the facts and circumstances of any of the cases other than her own. She publicized accusations of rape from people who, as far she knows, could be fabricating the stories. Now shes ruined the lives of people she completely doesnt know because shes angry about an encounter with one person she had 3 years ago.
There can be no doubt that college women are sexually assaulted. Each accusation deserves fair, accurate, unbiased investigation. But statistics can never, ever justify making wrongful accusations against an actual individual. Individuals are not statistics. No individual person is guilty of rape by virtue of statistics. No person is guilty of actually raping someone merely because a study says that a certain number of college women are sexually assaulted.
Her actions are vile and disgusting as the acts she pathetically tries protest. Neither hold any place in a civilized free society. I sincerely hope that all of the names she listed individually file civil suits against her and the leaders of Middlebury for allowing her to continue to walk around campus.
Good news for Ms. Dunn there are plenty of totalitarian states in the world that would be more than willing to hire someone who doesn’t have any regard for due process.
Rape and sexual abuse should not be tolerated but to publish names with no regard to the validity of the accusation is the same. How easy is it that there could be no truth to the accusation but it is a convenient way to pay the person back for some other slight…and in today’s world there is not much consideration of the consequences of public accusations with no basis in fact.
Witch hunts are not the answer. When have we gone too far in the name of political correctness?”What began as overdue acknowledgment of a vast sexual harassment problem has devolved into unfair and unsupported charges against men.” She’s no less sheltered or entitled than the white, rich students she appears to criticize. “Coming to this” is the worst kind of muckraking and puts this “strong woman” on the same level as Fox news & Breitbart.
It’s sheer irony that this Middlebury student not only “outed” 36 *harassers, assaulters, and rapists* — with hearsay, but absolutely no proof — is the same person who helped assault free speech and molest liberal intellectual debate on campus in the last Middlebury student crisis. Political correctness gone amok — and Middlebury College is the poster child, even more so than Yale and Stanford.
She was a central figure in repressing free speech on campus because she was offended by it. She’d rather shut down free speech than allow discourse — on a college campus no less! But she then insists her slander (or libel) should be protected by free speech. Double-standard much?
To all who are appalled, outraged, tortured by what Ms. Dunn has published and accused people of doing, I have one suggestion: ask every woman you know- mothers, sisters, daughters, wives, friends, aunts, cousins- if they have ever been sexually assaulted. Until you know how many people you love have been hurt by sex or sexual interactions they did not want, you operate from a blissful state of ignorance that renders your outrage ridiculous. You do not understand this issue or this problem, and so you cannot understand why a woman who was assaulted would create a platform for other women to share their pain. And to the person who feels he was wrongly accused, know that the pain you describe is not unique. Speak to women who are living with the pain and memories of having been assaulted or, as you say, “regretting a hookup,” and maybe you’ll discover the similarities.
“Commenter” seems to think that the pain that “Wrongly Accused” feels from being publicly wrongly accused of sexual assault is only fair because women in general live with the pain of being sexually assaulted.
What? That’s ridiculous. That’s not fair, that’s not just, that’s not legal, that’s not moral.
She says, ask your mothers, sisters, daughters, wives, etc. Well, guess what? I come from a family of mostly women, progressive women, and none of them would endorse what Ms. Dunn did.
And she/he says: “you cannot understand why a woman who was assaulted would create a platform for other women to share their pain.”
But that’s not what Ms. Dunn did. Her Facebook post wasn’t a place where women could “share their pain.” It was a place where they posted unsubstantiated moral and legal accusations against specific people who may not have done what they are accused of doing.
To Wrongly Accused — hurting yourself may seem like an easy solution, but it’s not. I went to Midd and I know how small and insular a place it can feel. You know who your friends are — the people who really know you and know what you are/aren’t capable of. Let them be your support and f*ck the people who don’t take the time to know you, but sit in judgment. Talk to a professor whom you trust — their older/more worldly perspective will be really valuable to you. And don’t forget that there is a whole world outside of Middlebury that doesn’t know anything about this situation. Spend more time off campus, if you need to. I also know what it’s like to be collateral damage and the feeling of being wrongly called out and accused of things that I didn’t do (not in Midd, but in a small town) — the rising hypertension and the feeling that everyone knows your name (they don’t) and is looking at you in a funny way (they aren’t). Focus on your classwork or talk to a dean if you can’t focus after J-term. Things may seem dark (and cold) now, but it won’t last. Be the strong, awesome, smart person your family and friends know you to be. I’m not a psychiatrist. Just trying to let you know things’ll be okay.
Knowyourassumptions- congratulations on being a progressive. Don’t think that qualifies you as understanding this issue, though. I do not wholly agree with what Ms. Dunn did, so please read more carefully. I do, however, understand why she did it. She did it because she felt incredible pain and frustration and anger, much like “wrongly accused.” Hence the similarities (again- reading carefully will help here). I wish you and others could understand too, except maybe then you’d have to have either experienced this pain or have more empathy for those who have. I hope for the latter, but it seems beyond you and many. Which, folks, is how we ended up with a society and commenters who are more comfortable with women being raped and abused in silence than the messiness that comes when women stop.being.silent. I’m okay with the messiness if it means we end up with a world where no one has to fear their bodies being violated. [continued]
If you think the way formal systems like the criminal justice system or college/university disciplinary boards have historically or even typically favor those who report being raped, then you’re living in a dream land. To whoever suggested rape kits, please go read some accounts of what rape actually is and its immediate effects and the longterm trauma. To all you who are more concerned there are men being wrongly accused in public rather than women being raped, please think about that.
I realize this situation is imperfect. But not more imperfect, not more outrageous than the epidemic of sexual assault on college campuses and throughout all of human history. This time is one I’m ready for, even as we face the new complications and pain that comes with it. Are you ready? Because you really sound like you THINK you hate sexual assault, but you’re not prepared for what it means when women stop playing by the rules that have failed to protect them and find a new way to speak out. PEACE everyone.
To me youre still excusing an immoral act that ruined the lives of 35 individuals whom Dunn doesnt even know.
You say she is in incredible pain from her vague memory of a drunken freshman encounter (her story about it is very ambiguous). You reach this diagnosis from a few words she says about herself now interestingly, AFTER she got in huge trouble. But even if she is in pain it does not justify her ruinous act against others 3 years later.
You say you understand why she did it? Really? Well, anyway, we can understand that the adult who murders a stranger may have been abused as a youth, but his victim didnt deserve to die and the murderer doesnt get to walk because he was abused years ago.
And please dont say that the commenters here are comfortable with women being raped and abused in silence. I am not and thats a terrible thing to say.
I agree that women have been victimized on campus. But the answer is not that, in return, they get to randomly ruin innocent people.
Peace to you
To me youre still excusing an immoral act that ruined the lives of 35 individuals whom Dunn doesnt even know.
This is a little dramatic. Immoral? What she did was extremely foolish and has real consequences but that doesn’t make it immoral. Ruined the lives of? Those guys will be fine from this. Nobody is going to take a random accusation from facebook so far as to ruin a life. There’s a better chance she “ruined” her own life, though I suspect she’ll be fine in time as well.
No way should she have done this and she will find out why but let’s keep things somewhat in perspective.
Correction: Middlebury is the poster child or political correctness gone amok more so than Yale and BERKELEY (not Stanford, sorry.)
I am stunned by the hatefulness of some of these comments which leads me to believe that sexual assault is still something that is ignored and buried even though “Hollywood” has tried to create a long overdue awareness, with something that has been going on for years. Do I agree with Ms. Dunn’s using her Facebook page to “out” alleged Middlebury accusers? I am on the fence…to receive such an outpouring of women on campus who have been sexually assaulted, abused or harassed, and feels that their voices have not been heard, or fear of a reprisal or being “raked over the coals” by the legal system of an accuser who wants to remain hidden, is sad and frightening. Hence, Penn State and the military where both women and men stepped forth, telling their stories and these institutions worrying more about their enrollments/enlistments then the victims. What makes you think that Middlebury College would be exempt? Boo hoo to the male college students that were “outed” and how it changed their lives….why were your names listed in the first place? Perhaps instead of Middlebury College ousting Ms. Dunn, it should begin a complete investigation into the names of the men that were listed as “alleged” sexual predators….If you didn’t do it, you have nothing to worry about….
The number of commenters here who automatically side with “Wrongly Accused” and believe he is telling the truth that he was, in fact, wrongly accused and is not a rapist* is the exact problem that the #metoo movement is calling out. PLEASE, consider this and do some introspection on it.
*I, like the rest of you, have no further knowledge of the underlying facts so I cannot say if what he did amounted to rape. But, if someone posted on Facebook that he stole her TV, I am 100% that the number of people automatically defending his actions would be inverted. And from all angles, that is inherently wrong.
“What she did was extremely foolish and has real consequences but that doesn’t make it immoral. Ruined the lives of? Those guys will be fine from this. Nobody is going to take a random accusation from facebook so far as to ruin a life. There’s a better chance she “ruined” her own life, though I suspect she’ll be fine in time as well.”
No, Mr. Philo, publicly accusing specific people of rape, a deplorable felony punishable by years of imprisonment, and doing the social media equivalent of holding a sign and walking up and down Church Street yelling out that “so and so” is a rapist — yes, that’s immoral. But it’s worse, because social media postings last forever. We know that people preserved Ms. Dunn’s web page before Facebook took it down.
And it’s nice of you to declare that “those guys will be fine.” [Insert smiley-face emoji here.] I’m sure they all feel better now that you’ve declared they’ll be fine. In fact, now their friends and family will treat them differently. Some of them may lose jobs or possibly never get hired for a particular job in the first place.
Your “no big deal” attitude is ridiculous. But what else would we expect from someone who himself thinks it’s okay to publicly accuse a public official of taking “bribes,” with no evidence.
Produce the bribe quotation with context or else you are doing the Seven Days comments section equivalent of holding a sign and walking up and down Church Street yelling out that “Mt. Philo a.k.a Charles Kenyon” is a rapist. Just think how you are ruining lives here. I might never get a city job.
Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Bartholet had this to say recently:
“My fairness concerns with the #MeToo phenomenon include the ready acceptance in many cases of anonymous complaints, and of claims made by women over conflicting claims by men, to terminate careers without any investigation of the facts. Some argue that women who speak out should simply always be believed. Others argue that if some innocent men must be sacrificed to the cause of larger justice, so be it. I find this deeply troubling. . .
Sometimes allegations are demonstrably credible by virtue of independent evidence. But where facts are in doubt or conduct is subject to different interpretations, efforts must be made to investigate what actually happened and how the different parties understood the events.”
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2018/1/1…
The point of due process is to protect everyone & provide for a fair hearing. Including Ms. Dunn herself. If the shoe were to be on the other foot, we would also not want anonymous accusers posting allegations about Ms. Dunn on-line to potentially hurt her future either. And she would want the right to defend herself & tell her side of the story (hard to do if accuser remains anonymous). That is the essence of due process – and everyone under the jurisdiction of the US Constitution is entitled to it.
There is no expectation or right of privacy when someone sexually assaults another. The reality is that we are all judged for our words, omission and acts. Some people here seem to think it is a duty to keep silent about wrongs done to them. That is not how the world works and it is not how the world should work.
“There is no expectation or right of privacy when someone sexually assaults another.”
Oh, good lord. If you’re going to make pronouncements about what the law says, then first please go to law school. Or at least take a class in First Amendment, defamation, and privacy law. Or at least read and comprehend the article you are commenting on. It is NOT A FACT that any of the 36 people Ms. Dunn has named sexually assaulted anyone. Period. At this point, what we have are second-hand, anonymous accusations. It does not even appear that any of the anonymous accusers have reported anything to any authorities. Just anonymous Facebook accusations.
I’m not talking about law per-se. I am talking about REALITY. The reality of life is that if you do awful things to people they will tell others about it. Heck, if you do anything, people will talk about it at some point. Sometimes they will talk about it on FACEBOOK and sometimes what you do will spoil your reputation. It’s just life.
Women always have and always will warn other women about who to avoid. If you don’t like that, i suggest you get some help in accepting reality.
The only difference here is that there was a backlash about it. The backlash won’t change reality. It will just force women at Middlebury to use more discrete channels to warn others.
You say, quote, The reality of life is that if you do awful things to people they will tell others about it.
Huh?
I guess rational thinking is not your thing. Which of the 36 accused males do you know for a fact actually did, quote, awful things? Are you saying that if youre accused youre guilty? Not in the U.S. Ms. Dunn does not know, nor do you, if any of the guys actually did the, quote, awful things she has publicly accused them of doing. Why is that concept so difficult for you to grasp? They may not have done anything more than been disappointing dates or boyfriends to their anonymous accusers. It is a near certainty that some, if not all, or most, of the 36 men she has ruined are not guilty of rape or sexual assault, or anything.
I certainly hope she gets sued by one or more of them and spends the rest of her life paying off defamation judgments.
Ms. Dunn may become the only law school applicant in U.S. history with first-hand knowlege of being sued for libel, slander, and defamation. But the innocents she falsely accused in her Kafkaesque trial may not bother to sue her; sounds like she is devoid of any valuable assets so the only victory for the innocents would be watching her squirm. What is most surprising about this entire event is that Dunn was ever invited to attend Middlebury. The school was once noted for accepting only the best and brightest.
Liz uses they/them pronouns. Please update the article.
For someone planning to study law, she did a lot of very stupid stuff here. It’s one thing to post the names of people she’s personally accusing of impropriety, but to publish a list of those accused by others without doing any sort of fact checking is very, very irresponsible, as well as being illegal. I’d imagine a fair number of them will be suing her, as she’s done a whole lot of damage to people that may or may not be guilty of anything.
This Tyler guy is acting like a battered spouse too scared to stand up for himself. It’s very sad to see such things.
It’s bad enough for him to suggest that no wrong has been done to him from what he claims is a false accusation (we’ll see how he feels when said accusation is used to deny him employment), but to imply that other men should not care if they are called rapists even if they are not, in the cliched name of starting a conversation, is absolutely ludicrous.
She gets almost a full ride to Middlebury and then wastes all four years by majoring in gender, sexuality and feminism studies. Literally the most useless degree in all of academia. Even sociology majors laugh at them. That alone shows she’s not cut-out for law school.
Elizabeth Dunn sounds fantastic, courageous and correct. I hope that the college changes course and embraces her and the opportunity she has offered to move the college towards policies that will make the college safer for everyone there. I also hope that Elizabeth Dunn goes on to a career in public service, contributing to the public policy making process in leadership positions. Elizabeth Dunn for President of the United States of America!
http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/42333/
https://www.thecollegefix.com/post/41478/
I think she raped the guy that she first posted about. I think she went up to his room, plied him with alcohol, and then took advantage of him. That is just as credible as anything she said. Sorry folks, but when you excessively use drugs you often do things you might later regret. Need to plan better.
This POS deserves to be in jail. I hope the victims of her libelous list sue her into the poor house. All 36 should take her to small claims at the same time, that would be beautiful karma.